Snowy Reflections
by Nights-into-dreams
Summary: (First person; one shot) Cloud has always lived in the past, while dreaming of the present. It takes the efforts of someone special and a bit of snow to change all that, and to make him live in the here and now…


AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, a departure back to the story writingsof yesteryear...

This is a FFVII fanfiction told from Cloud's perspective. I am placing this story not long after the group visits Cosmo Canyon for the first time.

Oh, and I don't own any of the FFVII cast, and I never will.

Please read and review! If you have any suggestions or comments, email me at:

Sm (underscore) scales (at) yahoo (dot) com

Lastly, I am dedicating this story to Becca-chan. She knows the meaning of the snow, and of love's various chronicles.

* * *

Gingerly, I touch the frosted window glass, and feel my fingertips stick to it. The biting cold rolls up them, and my arm shivers slightly.

I look outside, and I can see her playing in the snow with all of the other kids. The light shines faintly through them as they all chuck snowballs back and forth at each other's bulkily dressed bodies, tumbling and falling all over the place into the silent snow. Smiling slightly, I watch as my friend gets pelted in the side of the head with a clump of snow, it meshing into her fine black hair.

The light shines through all of their bodies as the memories of a winter long past lights up within my soul, bubbling long forgotten times up to the front of my mind. I close my eyes briefly, and opening them again, stare at the pale reflection in the window of the room behind me, and of a girl sneaking up behind me her hands held up in the air.

I watch as she covers my eyes from behind, and then I don't see anymore.

"Aeris…"

I cover her slender hands with my own, and pry them off my face. I turn around into her smiling face.

"You think too much Cloud, you know that?" She spoke with a light gravity to her voice and a clear cheerfulness in her tone. She pulled her hands away from mine then, and poked me in the chest. "All that worrying is just going to put you into an early grave you know."

"An early grave?...No thanks. I have stuff I need to do first before that happens." I respond coldly to her, not quite sure why.

Even before the words dried on my lips, I saw the joyfulness slip out of her eyes.

"I worry about you, that is all."

"I know you do, but I don't think you should."

"Why?"

"Because I said so, that's why."

"Oh."

With that, she turned away from me, and strolled over to the door. She then spun around, and gave me a great big smile, and leaned forward slightly.

"Cloud!", she shouted at me.

"Yes, Aeris?" I say with a slight irritation in my voice as I turn back to the window.

"Don't move!" She giggles, and then I hear her unlocking the.door, and dragging it open with a loud scraping sound against the wooden floor. She then goes outside, and I hear her footsteps crunching on the snow.

Damn, that girl is annoying at times.

I close my eyes for a moment, then open them again to slowly relive my past once more, back in Nibelhiem.

Then all the sudden I feel a cold wet thing pelt me in the back of my head.

What the hell?

I reach behind, and grasp a tiny amount of it in my fingers, and then look at it.

Snow.

She hit me with a goddamn snowball.

Suddenly, I was VERY angry at her, and just wanted to be left alone. Just ONCE on this trip…

"AERIS!"

I whirl around ready to yell at her, when I see her quiver with a slight sadness. The green in her eyes constantly change from light to dark, and I notice a slight shaking in her hand, which she quickly hides behind her back so for me not to notice.

"Yes Cloud?..."

I shake my head a bit, the snow falling down off of me. I let a half smile creep across my lips, and allow my eyes to warm up just a bit.

"It's nothing." I reach over and get my jacket off of the chair nearby, and put it on. I walk over the creaking floorboards, until I finally am standing in front of her.

"You…wanna go play in the snow?" I ask softly of her.

Her eyes light up and she hugs me.

"Yes."

_-fin_


End file.
